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Love Incarnate

Don’t question your life. Only make exclamations. Mixing the two is worse.

~ Lee Hwa-shin

Spoilers for episodes 13-14.

I love the audition scenes. They’re always fun in most shows, and this was the same. Never knew being a newsreader was such an arduous process – sudden script changes, reacting to unexpected situations, having to prolong the broadcast to prevent dead air, tongue twistery news – newfound respect for the anchors in the business.

I love the weathergirls. I love how they cheer two of their own in their attempt to clear the hurdle to greener pastures even though they’re not particularly pleased by the ‘betrayal’. (This part puzzles me – why is it such a crime to apply for another job, especially one in the same organisation?)

I love Hye-won. I love how she swears up a storm at Hwa-shin when he screws up their chances of being co-anchors. I really hope she gets a stronger storyline.

I love Beom. I love his pouting party with Hwa-shin. Not so much that he’s the catalyst of the struggle and angst.

I love Chi-yeol. Though he has a pitiful amount of screen time, he makes each moment count. How sweet was he to make noona rest while he cleared up the broken bowl? Soon, he’ll be a bonafide heartthrob with his own army of fans to melt at his every action.

I love how blood is thicker than feuds, and Hwa-shin’s mom makes peace with him after realising that his illness might have been partly due to his guilt over what happened with his brother. I love that she calls Hwa-shin her baby and feeds him. It’s embarrassing, but it’s about time he got some love.

I love Bang-ja and Sung-sook. I love how they gang up and call Hwa-shin ‘baby’ to tease him. I love their bonding over the disbelief at Chef Rak’s declaration of pursuing an intimacy-less relationship with either of them. It’s hilarious how each is now pushing the other to this strange man when they were just tussling over him not two seconds ago. I love their avoidance tactics. Who hasn’t done something like that with a dodgy suitor?

I love how petty Jung-won’s mom is. So fun seeing her cuss out her son when he waylays her trip to the station with a convoy of cars.

I love Jung-won. I love how simple he is in his affection for Na-ri, and tries in his own quiet way to help Na-ri out without making her feel indebted to him, and without capitulating to his mother’s demands with noble idiocy. I love how badass he is in leading a convoy of cars to delay his mom’s journey to the station. He’s not just some chaebol who throws money to get things done – HE’s both the brains and brawn. So not looking forward to the fallout.

I love Hwa-shin. I love how he tries so hard to do the right thing, and be a good friend. I love how he tries to put Na-ri first, commandeering a helicopter to send her to the audition on time. That’s just a smidgen less swoony than when he coaches her on her newsreading skills. I love how he sucks it up, and doesn’t sell her out when faced with disciplinary action that puts him out of running for the 9pm anchor. It must be hard to live with the principles he has. I also love that he gives her a respectable amount of space while still having a bit of fun teasing her in his crush.

I love how karma is an ass, how Hwa-shin declares he’s going to crush on Na-ri, just like she wanted to have someone crush on her in a one-sided love, and that she should behave like he had. I love how she tries to avoid him, just like how he was annoyed by her presence then.

I love Na-ri. I love how she tries to work around her limitations, and tries all ways and means to make it to the audition in time after her morning weather forecast. From practising the run between the two studios, to engaging a delivery rider to send her to the studio from the cosmos fields (even though that was a looooooong shot), she shows that her persistence is not only in affairs of the heart. I love how she imagines Hwa-shin coaching her in the studio during the audition, and that despite his actual coaching, she doesn’t become a super newscaster all of a sudden, and still makes mistakes like a regular human being. I love how her imagination goes into overdrive with the melo makjang (or the Fantastic loco loco melo melo) possibilities as she considers confronting Hwa-shin about his liking her. (Why is it aways so fun when talented actors deliberately act badly?) I love how she struggles, how she sincerely tries so hard to do the right thing despite her dawning realisation that she still has feelings for Hwa-shin.

I love the horribly obvious PPLs. Yes, that’s you Quiznos and Kia. And maybe that ice-cream. Guess which I’ll be having?

I love the cartoon aliens that bookend the episodes. How cute are they in their versions of the key scenes?

I love the team that’s making this series. Haven’t had so much fun following a series since Marry Me, Or Not. Thank you so much, writers, directors, and the entire team! Please continue to write a funny, heart-felt AND coherent story! Would be nice if everyone could be happy and friends right to the end (with nobody dead)… Kamsa hamnida!

And that elephant in the room? Well, I can’t say that I whole-heartedly approve of the kiss, but I can understand why it happened. Good kiss, though. That said, I’m hoping the fallout won’t be nuclear level. Waterbomb of the regular balloon variety would suffice.